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The BBC was found to have committed a "serious breach" of media regulations by not revealing that the narrator of a programme about the Gaza situation was the son of a Hamas representative, as determined by regulatory body Ofcom.

An inquiry by the broadcasting watchdog into the documentary titled Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has determined that the documentary was "materially misleading".

The BBC's director general had previously apologised, stating there had been "a serious error in relation to truthfulness".

The authority has instructed the broadcaster to air a peak-time declaration about its decisions.

"Given this constitutes a major infringement of our code, we are directing the broadcaster to transmit a announcement of our determinations against it on BBC Two at nine o'clock in the evening, with a schedule to be determined," it said.

'Possibility to Damage Confidence'

The authority's report declared: "The inquiry we conducted determined that the film's failure to disclose that the voice's male guardian occupied a role in the Hamas-administered government was significantly deceptive.

"It meant that the audience did not have critical information which may have been very significant to their judgment of the voice and the information he presented.

"Trust is at the core of the connection between a media organization and its public, notably for a public service broadcaster such as the British Broadcasting Corporation.

"This failing had the potential to damage the significantly high levels of confidence that audiences would have invested in a factual film from the broadcaster about the conflict in Gaza."

The documentary was removed from the online platform in February after the presenter's familial connections emerged, and in the month of July an internal BBC review concluded it infringed the broadcaster's content policies on factual correctness.

A corporation official commented: "The authority's determination is in accordance with the results of the internal assessment, that there was a major oversight in the programme in relation to the BBC's Editorial Guidelines on factual correctness, which reflects regulation 2.2 of the regulator's media standards.

"We have apologised for this and we agree with Ofcom's decision in its entirety. We will adhere to the directive as soon as the date and wording are confirmed."